What's your photo period?

sincityreefer

sincityreefer

Member
lol, well yes i agree pictures of me=blah!. lol,
ok seriously
i like about 10 or so a day of MH. My timers are set to come on at 11am and turn off at 9pm. After 9 i have a moonlighting system that stays on during the night. Soon i plan to get some atinic VHO's then i am planning on a 12hr photo period with 10hrs of MH and 1 hour of sunrise/sunset VHO only. JMHO.
In looking at your sig, i see you have PC lights. I would probally just then them 10-12hrs a day. I tried to make my lighting schedule around my schedule so i could see the tank lit as much as possible. (the reason for my 11am sunrise), good luck, HTH.
 
mick77

mick77

Member
My VHOs (4 110W, all actintic) come on at noon and shut off at about midnight- midnight 30. My MHs (250W 10K) come on at 2 and stay on util around 10PM. I have a custom built moonlight strip with eight bulbs that stays on indefinately. All of this is on a 100gal. tank. Hope this helps! By the way, my MH light on the right side comes on 1 hour earlier than the left side and the left side turns off about 1 hour after the right side.
 
advntrsekrs

advntrsekrs

Member
mick77- any reason your MH lights come on/go off one hour apart?And did you build your moonlight strip? That sounds like something I need to add to my lighting setup.
 
sincityreefer

sincityreefer

Member
I also have a moolight system that consists of 6 1 1/2" ABS endcaps with 2 blue and 2 UV LED's per endcap. 6 of them placed around my 120 looks awsome, the whole thing was DIY and cost around 30 bucks. (including a few messed up/miss drilled endcaps/ and a couple of LED legs snapped off). Let me know if you would like some more detailed plans, and i can draw you up a little circuit diagram, or give you a few pointers, ive set up a few of these now, and i just happen to be an electrical engineer. ;) I powerd my setup with an old 12V 1amp transformer i found in my junk drawer with all my old cell phone chargers and computer speak powersupplies. If you want to keep it cheep (around 30$) look around for an old/unuesd transformer. we can make it work with almost any voltage, but a 12V was ideal for my 4 LED per endcap design. But thats the cool thing about LED lighting sooo many options.... check out http://www.lsdiodes.com/5mm/
for prices, they seem to be the best i could find., i got the 4000mcd blue and the Ultra Violet. HTH, ill post a pic of the inside of my canopy with my moonlighting system tomorrow.
 
advntrsekrs

advntrsekrs

Member
Sincityreefer- I am not good with DIY so I would need a very detailed drawing and step by step. But I also have a 120 so your setup would fit right in :) I'm looking forward to your photo of the moonlight system.
 
mick77

mick77

Member
advntrsekrs, I turn my halides on an hour apart from each other in an half assed attempt to create the sunrise and setting. I built my moonlights in a day and it only cost me about $20. It's not the prettiest set up, but very efficient.
 
Dingo

Dingo

Member
I run my MH for 8 hours, and have no supplemental lighting. Anything longer than 8 hours and things start closing up.

I have 250W on 10 gallons, though, so my corals are a bit squinty eyed.
 
sincityreefer

sincityreefer

Member
advntrsekrs, its not as hard of a DIY project as you might think. might be a good one to start with. Have you ever worked with LED's or electronics before? even if you havent its not too complicated... posting pic soon.
 
sincityreefer

sincityreefer

Member
ok heres the pic. This is the left side of my canopy. you can see two of the "pods" in this picture, there are 6 total. all built exactally the same way. i love my moonlight system, looks awsome! let me know if you want to give it a go.. HTH
 
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